New York City is a place that's been growing upwards and outwards for centuries. Bold statement, right?
In the first part of the 20th century, NYC was undergoing sweeping changes, not the least of which was the rate at which properties were being developed.
Because the city was rising to unprecedented heights, architects and designers were whipping up plans left and right for any number of creative and outlandish projects. They're still doing it today.
But in 1934, there was a plan to fill in the Hudson River, pave over it, and build more avenues to ease congestion in the City.
Imagine that! Eliminating that pesky waterway in favor of more illustrious streets.
It's not the first time anyone had floated the idea. In 1916, Dr. T. Kennard Thomson wanted to fill in the East River and extend Manhattan all the way down to Staten Island.
Thomson's project would've cost the City between $50-$100 million, which at the time was surely a large sum of money.
But "noted publicist and engineering scholar" Norman Sper, who proposed the Hudson River fill-in about 20 years after Thomson's way larger proposal, gauged his project at $1 billion.
One billion?! "The Mighty Hudson," indeed.
That's an enormous price differential, even considering about two decades of inflation. Extending Manhattan aside, the volume of water to be diverted to fill in the East River is much less than that of the Hudson.
via Modern Mechanix, March 1934
Sper's intention was the ease the City's congestion by adding more avenues, and from the above map it's pretty clear to see that all that additional space would definitely open up lots of space.
But forget all of that for a second. Could you imagine a dam at either end of Manhattan? If things had gone differently, a skyscraper's view of the City might look something like the Hoover Dam right next to the Financial District.
Riverside Park wouldn't be beside a river at all. Don't even try to imagine it.
Check out 7 More NYC Neighborhoods and How They Got Their Names.
[via Ephemeral New York] [Feature Image Courtesy Ephemeral New York]